He is Not One of Us
by TRikiD
Summary: The tale Soren told to the rescued owlets of St. Aggies' was not completely true. Nyra and the remaining Pure Ones did escape, but the part about Kludd never being found was a lie.


He is Not One of Us

The tale Soren told to the rescued owlets of St. Aggies' was a lie. True to most of his word, Nyra and the remaining Pure Ones did escape, but the part about Kludd never being found was a lie. But Soren was completely oblivious. The Search and Rescue Chaw told him and his family that they scoured the entire land of The Beaks, and found no trace of Kludd.

But they lied.

Soon after the death of Metal Beak, most of the Guardians began their flight to St. Aggies' to rescue the moonblinked owlets, and the Search and Rescue Chaw began their survey across The Beaks to look for anymore owlets, captives or surviving Pure Ones. They had found nothing for the most part, but it wasn't until they searched the dying fires of the barren forest that they finally found something.

A bundle of ash-covered and blood-stained feathers hobbled out from underneath a fallen tree that had been severely burnt. A member of the Search and Rescue Chaw swooped down for a closer inspection, and soon realized that it was a young Tyto, most likely a Pure One, with a broken wing as it dragged alongside him.

With much fighting and cursing from the injured owl, they managed to get him into a makeshift gurney carried by two owls. It wasn't until they brought him to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree early in the day, when most of the tree's inhabitants had already gone to sleep, that they realized this owl was Soren's traitorous brother, Kludd.

They secretly put him in a hidden part of the infirmary while the parliament discussed the difficult decision of deciding his fate. Eglantine had said that he kidnapped and moonblinked her in a heartbeat, so an owl like Kludd could be more dangerous than they imagined. Letting him stay at the tree would be quite risky, for he could turn on them if not monitored carefully. Every member of the parliament agreed that even though this was not normal for them, they could not take that chance.

After Kludd had been cleansed of the black soot all over his body, and his broken wing was put into a cast made out of an elastic leaf and tree sap, they brought him into the parliament with the close supervision of two armored guards.

All members of the parliament stared in silence at the disgraced owl before them, as he wouldn't give them the satisfactory of looking them in the eyes by averting his scowling gaze down at his talons. Kludd waited for them to speak, as he clutched the white branch at the center of the huge hollow tightly.

"Kludd, eldest son of Noctus and Marella from the Forest Kingdom of Tyto, we are well aware of the dark deeds you have committed while serving the Pure Ones," Boron slowly began, but Kludd cut him off.

"And I would do them all again," he hissed, still refusing the make any eye contact.

"That is the problem, Kludd. Your dark nature is too dangerous to tame, so much so that we cannot let you live here at the Great Tree—or any populated kingdoms," Barren added firmly.

Ezylryb grumbled softly in his normal corner of the hollow, and sulked his head when he realized what they were going to do to his pupil's own family. They had only performed this sort of act for the most drastic measures, but even those were rare. Ezylryb supposed Kludd _was_ a rare case.

"After careful speculation, we have confirmed that the best section of the kingdoms to exile you to will be the Barrens," Bubo boomed.

The world 'exile' alone was enough to shatter Kludd's cold glare towards the hollow floor, and he finally glanced up at the parliament in surprise. For the first time since he was rescued from the dying forest fire, Kludd felt real fear.

"You will spend the rest of your days, however short or long they may be from this moment on, in the desolate land of the Barrens. You will never be shown kindness, and no one shall ever speak a word to you agajn," Boron continued and nodded towards the same guards from before to get another stretcher. Kludd's gaze remained wide and fearful as he was carefully loaded onto the stretcher and lifted into the sky, disappearing over the bright horizon.

But before he disappeared, the entire parliament chanted in unison, "Good luck, Kludd of Noctus and Marella from the Forest Kingdom of Tyto. May Glaux have mercy on your soul."

An infirmary matron entered the hollow soon after, and approached the king and queen with a respective bow.

"Your Majesties," she began, "Shall we inform Soren's family of Kludd's fate?"

A long silence melted into the already heavy air, as Boron and Barren exchanged glances with Ezylryb. They knew Soren had grown close to him and idolized him, so he was the only one with enough validation to speak for Soren's well being. After another long moment of consideration, Ezylryb regretfully shook his head.

"No," Boron eventually answered.

"What shall we tell them then, Your Highnesses?"

"Tell them that Kludd was never found," Barren confirmed.

* * *

 **Just a ficlet I thought would be interesting. Inspired by "One of Us" from The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, which is rightfully owned by Disney.**

 **Until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!**


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